Face it: not everything in life is great, and that includes your products or services. They may be better than what your competition offers, but the closest you can come to perfection is to say that your product is perfectly the way it is.

Okay, that’s rather Zen. But imperfection is a fact of life, and that’s no secret. The primary reason consumers don’t buy—assuming your product is within their means—is that they don’t believe your claims. They expect you to say nothing but nice, happy things about your stuff: “It’s the best, the strongest, the smoothest, the most flexible, the longest-lasting, the safest, the most reliable, ...

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